I played ds2 after falling in love with ds1 and beating it. Ds2 got stale for me quickly. I really agree with you on the subject of "tough not fair". Not saying ds1 was devoid of these moments (ala bed of chaos) but most boss fights in 1 were better. Ds2 had a real problem of prevalent gank fights. Unlike Ornstein and Smough the ganks did not consist of contrasting bosses, (one fast and small, and the other large and slow) ds2 proceeds to throw not very challenging bosses in pairs or triplets (ruin sentinels for example) at you. Its not fun. Sure its challenging, but in an annoying grindy sort of way. Not saying ds2 has no good bosses, looking glass, veldstat, darklurker, the fuckin dude on the chariot are all great. But Its the only souls game I haven't gone back to time and again. Worth mentioning that I havent played scholar, only have experience with the base game. All in all it was pretty underwelming, the dlcs made an improvement, but overall it just felt uninspired. Lazy boss design rampant and lazy level design really just disappointed me.